In a small classroom on the second floor of Southern Hills Church of Christ, 21 Bhutanese refugees sit in a hodgepodge circle of folding chairs. In the middle of the circle, two white folding tables hold royal blue Nepali Bibles. The refugees wear a mix of traditional Eastern clothes and more modern Western attire they’ve collected since coming to Abilene almost two years ago.

The golden-brown faces and dark eyes focus intently on Jody Lee, ’99 ACU graduate and teacher of the class. Lee helps everyone turn to Genesis 47:13-26.

“Who remembers the name of Abraham’s son?” Lee asks the class in a slow, clear voice.

“Isaac,” a man answers quickly with a strong, Eastern accent.

Lee, armed with an arsenal of hand gestures, begins to describe the story most American children learn in Sunday School.

Gauri Rasailey translates Lee’s English words into his native Nepali for his brothers and sisters who joined him in his trek halfway across the world from Nepal to Abilene in 2009.

A people in limbo

Many people of Nepali origin began settling in Bhutan, a small Asian country that sits between China and India, in the late 19th century. In the 1980s, the Bhutanese government began discriminating against the Nepali people. Some spoke out in protest, and in the early 1990s, the government responded with imprisonment and torture prompting many to flee to Nepal as refugees.

However, life in Nepal wasn’t easy. The refugees lived in limbo between their homeland of Bhutan and their new home in Nepal, although “home” might be an overstatement. The refugees were forced to live in one of seven camps throughout southeastern Nepal where they made small huts out of bamboo and mud.

Gauri remembers living in these camps before coming to Abilene, and said it was where he met and married his wife, Laxmi. Later, he and Laxmi had a son, Prajwel, and they all lived in the hut together. However, most of his camp memories are not so good.

He said the army and other “bad people” would enter the country and do whatever they wanted, making the camp an unsafe living environment for his family. That’s when they decided to relocate.

Several countries learned about the situation in Nepal and began opening doors to the refugees. The U.S. was one of those countries, and Abilene is one community where they’re sent.

Gauri came to Abilene with Laxmi and Prajwel, now 3 years old. Gauri’s parents, brother and sister also live in Abilene while Laxmi’s parents live in Boston.

A new ministry

Several other Bhutanese refugees also call Abilene home, and when a Southern Hills member began bringing some to church with her, a ministry was born. Now, around 20 native Bhutanese attend Southern Hills on a regular basis.

Lee describes the Bhutanese members as gracious, humble people with a great appreciation for the little things in life and huge welcoming smiles. He said interacting with the new members has been an opportunity for him and the entire Southern Hills community to re-think their faith.

“We’ve just been able to express our faith story not only in the word, but in the ways in which we are interacting with these people,” Lee said. “I think it’s a great encouragement to our faith.”

He said not all the refugees are Christians, and he thinks some of them might never decide to follow Christ - but that is not the church’s main goal.

“Our ultimate goal is we want them to be loved. We want them to know that we love them regardless of what they decide,” Lee said. “Obviously we want them to become part of God’s family and followers of Christ. But we want to love them and serve them and teach them what it means to interact with Christians and be a true family of God.”

Most of the Bhutanese members were originally Hindu, including Gauri’s family. However, Gauri and his wife were baptized in 2009 after several Bible studies with members of Southern Hills and David Peterson, the minister of Clyde Church of Christ. Peterson came to the U.S. from India more than 20 years ago and speaks Hindi, a language close enough to Nepali that Gauri and his wife were able to hear about the gospel in what Lee calls Gauri’s “heart language.”

“That’s something you can see God’s hand on,” Lee said.

Gauri said since becoming a Christian, he no longer allows his parents to put a tilaka, a red dot on the forehead worn on a daily basis or for special religious occasions, on his forehead. Instead, he gives and asks for blessings during traditional Hindu holidays. His mother and brother are Hindu, but Gauri said they’ve all come to a mutual respect for their different beliefs.

A new life

Life in Abilene may be better than the outdoor camps of Nepal, but that doesn’t make it easy. Gauri said he was in the midst of completing a degree in higher education in Nepal at the time they left. He taught math and science to 17- and 18-year-old students for three years before he left – one of the few things he misses about Nepal.

In Abilene he works a low-paying job until he can afford to complete his higher education at an American university.

However, the family enjoys almost everything else about Abilene’s peaceful nature and Western culture. Laxmi wore the traditional Eastern sari around town when they first arrived, but now she dresses in pants and blouses that blend with Abilene fashion. Gauri jokes that he likes the Western dress because it is much quicker to put on than bunching and scrunching the flowing fabric of a sari.

Gauri describes Nepal as a beautiful, mountainous country, home to Mount Everest. He is willing, though, to abandon that natural beauty for what he calls Abilene’s man-made beauty – at least for now.

“Every person’s life is filled with sorrow and happiness. Life is a journey,” Gauri says as he watches his son run around the now empty classroom. “My life is a journey, and every journey has a destination, I’m just not sure what mine is, yet.”